David Bowie’s Penne Putanesca (1988)

Well, I found another cookbook that I desperately want–the 1998 WMMR RocknRoll Celebrity Cookbook.

“I promise you that I do cook myself (as taught to me by my good friend, Francesca Boglione).”

Really, David? I don’t see him eating let alone cooking. I mean, According to David Buckley, the author of the book Strange Fascination: David Bowie: The Definitive Story, Bowie’s diet in the mid-1970s consisted of red peppers, cocaine, and milk. 

Which explains why his Thin White Duke was so thin.

It’s actually not far off from Beyonce’s Dreamgirls diet: lemonade comprised of cayenne pepper, lemons, and grade B maple syrup. She lost 20 pounds in 2 weeks.

And who is this mysterious Francesca Boglione who supplied the recipe? She doesn’t exist. The friend in question is FrancescO Boglione. He and his wife Gael were friends with Bowie. He is even the godfather of one of their daughters. 

Gael described him:

 “David was the most beautiful man. I met him when I was 19 in New York and then when I got together with Francesco, David lived round the corner [in South Kensington] and we all got on so well. He was one of the most gentle, inspiring human beings I’ve ever met. And funny – really funny.”

Got it?

Good.

Bowie’s recipe is…vague. It’s just throwing unspecified amounts of ingredients into a pot and seeing what happens.

This is what I did:

• Tossed one full can of anchovies in olive oil into pan.
• Cooked garlic and 1/2 diced red bell pepper in anchovy/oil. (Bowie/Boglione may have meant roasted red peppers, but this was the next best thing).
• I added 2 cans of Italian stewed tomatoes. There was no mention of cutting the tomatoes and they were whole, so I just took the kitchen shears to them and got them into smaller pieces.
• Black olives. Just regular old black olives? No Italian would do such a thing; I had a new jar of kalamata olives, so I chopped up a handful of those (let’s say a half cup).
• I threw in 1/4 cup capers.
• I put the lid on and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

I didn’t have penne or ziti in the cupboard, so I went with farfalle.

Here is the result:

Overall, this was good!

What I would change: I guess that this could’ve been on the stovetop for a lot longer than 30 minutes, but I was making this as a weeknight dinner. I would use diced Italian tomatoes and I wish I had just sliced up some regular ol’ Californian black olives instead of the kalamata olives. I’d also add more capers and just a touch of red pepper flakes. But the anchovy level was perfect. If you didn’t know that they were in there, you wouldn’t know that they were in there!

But that’s the beauty of a dish like this–it’s all about eyeballing it and getting creative.

So, the orange image of Bowie with the pasta is the cover of the book from the exhibit David Bowie Is, which Mr. Sauce and I were fortunate enough to visit in June at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

I won’t go into the details, which you can read about here and here, and here, because I know that my descriptions wouldn’t do it justice. Basically all I can say is that I am so happy that I got to see it in person–it combined personal items from his archives (clothes, instruments, lyrics, notes, drawings) with sound and lights and film. It took nearly 2 hours to go through it all. It was almost overwhelming.

At the beginning you were handed a headset, which, depending on where you were in the room, would sync up with the monitors in that part of the exhibit. TECHNOLOGY! It was SO. FUCKING. COOL.

Listening to “Ashes to Ashes” and looking at that fucked up clown costume at the same time? Unreal.

Watching his 1979 SNL performance of “The Man Who Sold the World” with Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias while standing next to the coffin/space tux, designed by Mark Ravitz ? Amazing.

My favorite item on display may have been the “Life on Mars” suit–talk about iconic (it’s also my favorite Bowie song).

Next to the details of the costume, they had a photo of Kate Moss wearing it for a 2003 spread in British Vogue. 

Fashion was a big big big part of this show (I think there were 40 some costumes on display), but that picture of Moss really stuck out to me. THAT is what a model should be, amiright? That’s a supermodel. That suit is singing on her. The motion and the drama–let’s see a Jenner or a Hadid do that.

Also, I had never (!?!) seen the video for “Boys Keep Swinging, (1979)” which is hilariously irreverent (also, I love dancing Bowie!) While I watched the video I realized that had never really thought about the lyrics before. I guess you can take it as a critical yet cheeky commentary on traditional masculinity (yeah, when you’re a boy nothing stands in your way, clothes always fit you, you can buy a home of your own, learn to drive and everything) but my takeaway was more like, when you’re a girl, things just suck. Especially that “clothes always fit you” bit.

Anyway, the show was phenomenal. It introduced me to other facets of his work and also increased my interest in and appreciation of everything Bowie.

Seeing David Bowie Is was bittersweet. It was such a joy to celebrate an artist whose work made an indelible mark on my life, but it was also so sad to know that this show essentially became a goodbye to one of the most brilliant and beautiful men on the planet. I got choked up multiple times during the show and I still do time to time when I think of him.

The exhibit was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

Well, you can’t see David Bowie Is in person because Brooklyn was the last stop, but in the near future you’ll be able to experience it through VR.  So keep your eyes peeled for that.